Medical facility purchasing is a field for which there is little historical background of curriculum development. To determine the content of an educational curriculum in the field, data on the frequency, supervision, and difficulty of performance in 208 task elements were obtained from a survey of 131 individuals in 29 institutions. In addition a questionnaire concerning general purchasing practices was mailed to the administrators of the institutions. Some findings and recommendations were: (1) Most hospitals have some kind of central purchasing facility, and both centralized and decentralized purchasing commonly exist at the same institution, (2) Purchasing functions are generally performed with little or no supervision and do not involve high levels of difficulty, (3) Nearly every purchasing function is performed at some time by persons other than purchasing agents, (4) Since diversity of policies and procedures exist, flexible curriculums should be constructed, and (5) Instructional units should be designed to combine tasks related to a common function. Background information for the project may be found in ED 037 570 and other allied health projects are available as VT 011 426-VT 011 432 in this issue. (SB)